Red Rocket (2021) Movie Review

Red Rocket is the latest feature film from writer and director Sean Baker. Baker has made a name for himself recently with back to back hits, Tangerine which was shot entirely on iPhones, and The Florida Project. Red Rocket is the story of Mikey Saber (Simon Rex), a washed-up porn star who comes back to his hometown of Texas to regroup. He lumbers into town on a bus with his face bruised and bloody. Mikey crashes at the home of his estranged wife Lexi (Bree Elrod) and her mother Lil (Brenda Deiss). As you might expect, there is some unresolved tension between the three people. But Mikey makes amends and begins selling weed to help pay the rent.

Things are going alright until Mikey meets Strawberry (Suzanna Son) at a donut shop. The teenager intrigues Mikey and he begins sneaking around to hang out with her, pretending to be a big shot in Hollywood. Mikey’s relationships with Lil and Lexi dissolve as he begins to imagine a future as a porn star couple with Strawberry. The Strawberry storyline was a bit problematic for me as Mikey clearly takes advantage of a young girl, indicative of the way the porn industry often takes advantage of young women. It was one of Baker’s few missteps in the movie as he glosses over the commentary on Mikey’s involvement with the teen.

Red Rocket is one of the most nuanced character studies this year. Mikey is an absolute con man, saying whatever people need to hear to get what he wants. You can see why folks in Texas believe he was a big shot, he is oddly magnetic. Mikey’s tendency to cruise through life and embellish stories gets him into heaps of trouble. He burns bridge after bridge with his lies and slick trickery. You’re rooting for him, but only a minute amount because he is actually a narcissistic ass. Nothing about him is real, even the erections that he is wildly proud of have to be induced with drugs. The women he has in his orbit all fall for his charms, despite the fact that they should know better. Strawberry is the only one who doesn’t have a past with him so she’s unaware of his idiocy. But she gets swept up by his big dreams and his charms. Lexi tries to keep Mikey at an arm’s length but even she eventually begins sleeping with him and relying on him too much.

Red Rocket suffers only from being too long and repeating the same gag over and over – Mikey is a sleazy con man and there’s really nothing else at his core. The acting is delightful and this is easily Simon Rex’s best role. He is utterly believable and imbues Mikey with a swagger that is compelling despite his lies. Brenda Deiss and Bree Elrod are hilarious as a mother-daughter duo and deliver deadpan lines that will make you laugh out loud. When Mikey pleads with Lexi to tell her mother he’s not a dick, she quips, “Why would I lie to my mother?” The script delivers a handful of hilarious moments like this that will make you chuckle.

Part of Baker’s strengths is shining a light on America’s lower classes and Red Rocket accomplishes this again. The people in Mikey’s life are all struggling to get by. The scenery is captured in detail by the cinematography of Drew Daniels and provides a fitting backdrop for the underbelly of America with equal parts industrial and nature filled. The line between the haves and the have nots is severe and it would be easy to envision the folks Mikey interacts with in the same spot years later. While Red Rocket is not my favorite from Sean Baker, it’s still a worthy installment in his notable filmography. One final thought: you should prepare yourself because you’ll never be able to listen to Bye Bye Bye by N’Sync again without thinking of Red Rocket.

You’ll like this movie if:
1. You like Sean Baker’s other movies
2. You like stories with unlikeable protagonists
3. You like stories depicting lower class America